Following the initial invasion of the Cambro-Normans in the late
twelfth century the installation of foreign-born lords and earls in Ireland,
by King Henry II and his son John, continued throughout the thirteenth
century. This in turn gave rise to some of the greater dynasties of
Anglo-Norman families such as the Geraldines of Leinster (Kildare) and
Munster (Desmond), the Burkes of Connacht and north Munster, and the
Butlers of Tipperary and Kilkenny.

By the beginning of the fourteenth century the territorial extent of the
Irish lordship was at its height. Every native ruler, even Maguire (Mag
Uidhir) and O'Donnell in the extreme northwest, was legally the tenant of
some earl or baron, or of the English king directly. However power
struggles between the Irish lords and the Anglo barons, as well
as rivalries among the various Irish chieftains, continued to change the
landscape of political power within Ireland over the next century.

Between 1315 and 1318, the Scottish war in Great Britain spilled into
Ireland. Edward Bruce of Scotland in alliance with Domhnall O Neill, king of Tir
Eoghain, carried on a three year campaign against the Anglo-Norman barons before Edward was defeated at the Battle of Faughart in Louth. At the Battle of Athenry in 1316, five Irish
kings were killed along with many chieftains from Connacht, Thomond and
Westmeath. In conjunction with the Famine of 1315-1317,
the Bruce campaign devastated much of the land in the colony. In Thomond
the death of Richard de Clare at the Battle of Dysert O'Dea leaves a gap
which allow the O'Brien chiefs de facto independence for the rest of the
Middle Ages.

For the rest of the fourteenth century the Anglo-Irish parliament in Ireland
complain of decaying defenses and incompetent administration in the lands
of the English lords, many of whom were living in England. The Statutes of
Kilkenny were passed in 1366 as a fultile attempt to stem the increasing cooperation between
the 'Gaelicized' English and the Irish chiefs. A Gaelic resurgance was in the wind, as the most
significant gain for the native Irish chiefs was not necessarily territory, but liberty. In Leinster the
chieftains had freedom of action as the royal government inadequately filled the gap left by the
former lords of Leinster, a role later filled by the increasing power of the earls of Ormond and
Kildare. In Connacht and Desmond (southern Munster) the O'Connor and McCarthy chiefs were
partially restrained by the presence of the Burkes and the earls of Desmond. In Thomond and
Ulster this liberty was almost absolute,